Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I just bought some SIT Powerflats semi flat nickle wound strings .105 .085 .070 .050 to try, and the E strings sounds dead to me.
Actually the E strings sounds muted while the others ring sharply.
Very weird, I never experienced this before. The E string actual sounds pretty cool, and has a deep bass, but muted sound to it, but definitely does not match the others.
Is it possible they where designed this way, or do I have a dead string perhaps?

I just bought a set of TI Jazz flats for one of my basses and the A string is noticeably deader than the others and doesn't ring like the E, D, or G. Could be a conspiracy among string makers. I'm waiting to see if the others go dead so that everything matches or whether I need to contact the store and see about getting something done with it.

This is a rather common finding with Flatwounds and I have had it happen to me with the low E. In my case, it was with Pyramids. The dealer replaced the string and that was the end of the problem.

Others have found, however, that the low E and A are sometimes not seated properly in the nut and that this is a problem with regard to the sustain of the strings. Correcting the nut slot has seems to have solved this problem for some. I have even heard of some adjusting the trussrods to improve upon the sustain, however, this has never helped this situation for me.

I must confess, that I have never encountered this problem with round wounds.

As always, I am interested in what others have found and their remedies for the problem.

With roundwounds many times I find the E string to not ring true, but have several odd harmonics wavering around the main tone. That may be one of the reasons I went to flatwounds.

When it's been the E or G on a bass in the past, I guess I always figured that maybe since it was off near the edge of the pickups the signal was weaker or different. Once the strings lose some of their initial brightness it becomes less obvious. This one surprised me since it was the A and the strings on either side were both nice and bright. It's on my modified 2030 with Ric humbuckers which came with roundwounds and I pulled them off. They sounded fine but roundwounds tend to give me really big, hard callouses on my left hand fingertips and after a while my fingers don't fit on the skinny little necks of my 6 and 12-strings.

Ok, today the rest of the strings A, D and G all sound the same. I don't know if the rest of the strings died, or if there suppose to be like this. There flats, so more playing and testing will determine there outcome.
Weird, that's the first I ever had strings that where like this.

I've got Ernie Ball flats (same guages) on my P-Bass and the initial playing was like yours, Bob. Only took a little bit of playing to get the A-D-G strings to equal the "deadness" of the E string.

Overall, I like the tone and feel. Real old school bass sound and exactly what I wanted. Just play yours for a while and see how you like them.

For the solid nickle flats, clean them real well with some Naptha (or Ronsons) and a cotton ball.

Clean off all the oxidization first before you string up.

Your strings should be clean and open sounding afterwards.

Pyramid bass strings are usually filthy! They definitely need a good cleaning before use.

Well, after almost a week, my A string still sounded dead, compared to the others, so I called the seller (juststrings.com) and they gave me an 800 number for the Conneley Company in N.Y. who must be the distributor for T.I. strings. They were great to deal with and are sending me a replacement string and a postage-paid envelope to stick the old one in and mail it back. Good deal!

the problem I run into a lot is dead low B strings and semi dead E strings ... and once in a while a bad A, D, or G string ... but usually the low B is a problem ... John Entwistle had to work with Rotosound to get them to improve the quality of their E strings ...

As Peter indicated, this is fairly common with flats. Occasionally a wound top layer will crack when it's wound around the post, and the string winding will lose its tautness. Then, it's replacement time. Thunk.

Hi

I have had the same problem, but not with just one string. Every E string I've ever put on my Hofner bass sounded dead. Always Pyramid flats, always dead sounding. I got them from various sources too, so it shouldn't be due to a bad batch.

Eventually I borrowed a micrometer and measured the actual gauge. Rather than the .100" that it should be, it measured .095". I tried the previous dead one (that I had kept) and it was .095" too.

Don Butler contacted Pyramid and they sent a new one out that actually measured .100" like it should do and.... it fixed the problem. No more dead string.

Who'd have thought .005" would make such a difference!

Ben